That Korean Leader-1 reminds me that there is an oversized Monsterous Puzzler Fiend (Devil Satan-6) out there somewhere...I've only seen a few of the parts, but the combined version would probably be 15-18 inches tall.

Ah man, Batrus may be fugly, but the Spanish Madelman 2050 toy line he comes from is magnificent. [madelman2050.com] I have a few examples of the better mechs from the line in my collection and wouldn't mind getting more. They are all interchangeable with Micronauts-like (but just barely not compatible) pegs and sockets.

Edit: also, that Pegas is glorious. I never really dug Pegas until I saw that pic. He reminds me of the proportions on some of the Atlantic Galaxy figures (Hm, I should post some of those guys here).

Mike, your bootlegs are fantastic! Do you own and display all of them? If so, can you give us a current group shot? (Do you ever worry about getting cancer from living in such close proximity to so much potentially carcinogenic material? I kid, I kid)

It's true, I do collect these things and own most of what I post. But no display as of yet. I really get a kick out of the hunt, because surprises turn up everywhere. J-Toys have become like hipster gold, and for a guy who grew up as a "weirdo" for collecting the OG stuff, it feels awkward being all cool and uppity all the sudden. I liked being a weirdo. So here I am again, being a weirdo. Whether or not this bootleg booty gains any legit collector credibility is still way up in the air. So much absolute crap, hardly worth saving for any reason. But my opinion is, if a boot or fugbot has redeeming qualities in some capacity, it's worth spending 10 bucks on. In the case of the above robot, make that fifty cents.

Some bootlegs, as we have recently seen, are indeed getting expensive. I just watched this end today and thought "a loose, broken, incomplete Korean ST Xabungle bootleg...sold for 100+ bucks? That's a lot more than the legit version would have brought."

It could be because it has the taekwon v head on it. I'm sure theres a whole collecting subculture that just goes for that stuff. There's so much of it. I wOuld kill for a DX plastic taekwon v, I've only ever seen it twice.

That reminds me, back when I first got into this one of the pieces I picked up was a Korean ko of diaclone Diabattles with a taekwon v head. I hated it because it was plastic so I sold it. Now that I have an original one, I wish I still had the ko.

Please keep posting this stuff, Mike. This thread is about the only place I get to see cool vintage shit I've never seen before.

machinesoldier Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It could be because it has the taekwon v head on
> it. I'm sure theres a whole collecting subculture
> that just goes for that stuff. There's so much of
> it. I wOuld kill for a DX plastic taekwon v, I've
> only ever seen it twice.

Made by the same Hong Kong company that made that weird 4-legged Votoms bootleg (ECHO). It uses Microman/Micronauts Surveyor 3/Star Defender bits. The packaging is particularly worth seeing for its mashup use of altered 3 3/4" and MOTU figures: [actionfiguresca.proboards.com]

I think it actually doesn't look half bad with Micros in it, but the construction is really cheap quality to say the least. It's actually molded in a low grade white plastic, with the gold color thinly painted on. The front canopy hinge doesn't even fully connect to its hinge.

Josh: That's great! I know if I had found those gold Star Defender claws on their own, I'd have wondered if they were from the two never-released Lords of Light vehicles that were planned to use them (including a Star Defender clone). Other than the color and cheaper quality, the only difference from the Microman/Micronauts version of the claws is they lack the spring inside them to clamp shut.

Matt: those Jiongs are more clownish than even the Micronaut 'trons, that is one thing for certain. :D

Mike: Nope, this was a relatively recent find from a very lucky random eBay search. Until now, I hadn't found any reports of anyone else owning one, but I figured if anyone had, it would be you :D. No idea if the seller had yours or not (probably not, they didn't seem to have any idea what it was beyond the Transformer-KO packaging). And yes, Space Frog has been on my radar ever since you first posted him here, and I've told lots of Microfans about it! :D I'm amazed at how much they retooled or referenced the Biotron/Robotman design without actually directly copying parts besides the claws.

I actually have both the blue VF-1S Valkyrie head and the red Valkyrie head from Mr. Hard Hats but I don't have any of the other pieces of Mr. Hard Hat! I've always liked the look of it, though. Four Star had a way of making bootlegging fun.